‘Throw those sons of b****** to crocs’, Philippines president, Duterte rants at UN Human Rights team who said he needs psych evaluation

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‘Throw those sons of b****** to them [crocodiles]‘:

Philippines’ firebrand leader Duterte says UN human rights team should be fed to the fearsome reptiles after commission chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said he needs a ‘psychiatric evaluation’

Duterte made remarks during a meeting with soldiers in Zamboanga City on Saturday

Using expletives and misogynistic phrases, Duterte has variously attacked and debunked the work of some of the teams leading experts Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Agnes Callamard, as well as, International Criminal Court prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda

The unconventional leader was trying to justify his order for the police to ignore the international rights team in the country to investigate his controversial and blood-thirsty war on drugs in the Philippines

His apparent belligerence towards examination of the number extrajudicial killings and surge in inhumane policing in the drug war escalated to a war of words after UN human rights boss, al-Hussein, called his words ‘unacceptable’

Duterte had accused UN members of being part of a key communist rebel group

International monitors critics and local rights groups have accused Duterte of drifting toward authoritarianism

In one instance last year, he declared martial law in the south during a major attack by pro-Islamic State group militants

President Rodrigo Duterte has only choice words for United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein for tagging him as a murderer.

President Rodrigo Duterte has said that United Nations humans rights investigators should be fed to crocodiles.
The Filipino premier made the remarks in response to comments last week by the United Nations’ human rights chief, who claimed Duterte needed a ‘psychiatric evaluation’.
‘If these fools come here, are there crocodiles here? The ones that eat people? Throw those sons of b****** to them,’ he told soldiers during a meeting in Zamboanga City on Saturday.
The President, whose brutal war on drugs has drawn international condemnation, told the nation’s law enforcement to stay silent if they were confronted by inspectors.
Duterte justified his order for the police to ignore the human rights investigators, saying he was protecting law enforcers from incriminating themselves.

Irascible: President Rodrigo Duterte [photo] said last week: ‘If these fools come here, are there crocodiles here? The ones that eat people? Throw those sons of b****** to them’

Local paper, the Phil Star. reports that the president later claimed his order is allowed under the Constitution.

‘You know, they say they are investigating us. My God, you fools! If you are investigating us, the rule in criminal law is, any statement or answer that you give may incriminate you,’ he reportedly said in the meeting.
‘If you answer their questions, it will be freewheeling, it is recorded.
‘If you are called there, you are bound by whatever you say. So the best way is to just keep silent. Just tell them: ‘We have a Commander-in-Chief.’ Haven’t I told you? I take full responsibility,’ Duterte told the troops.
Rodrigo Duterte has overseen a drug war marked by thousands of killings of mostly poor suspects and his latest outburst of truculence comes after UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said the Filipino leader ‘needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation’ over his ‘unacceptable’ remarks about some top human rights defenders.
al-Hussein demanded the Human Rights Council, which counts the Philippines among its 47 member countries, ‘take a strong position’ on the issue, and insisted ‘these attacks cannot go unanswered.’

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has become increasingly outspoken as his time as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights comes to an end. He has described Filipino president, Rodrigo Duterte, as a murderer

The soon to retire head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has become increasingly outspoken as his time as his tenure at the Human Rights Watch monitor comes to an end.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, al-Hussein referred to a court petition filed last month by Duterte’s government accusing the UN fact-finding team on indigenous peoples, the team lead, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, and others of being members of a key communist rebel group. – Human Rights Watch says the allegations, which Tauli-Corpuz has denied, have put her and some 600 other people in danger.
The Filipino leader also has repeatedly insulted the UN expert on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, lashing out at her for raising alarm over the thousands of suspects killed under his anti-drug crackdown.
The voluble leader has also taken aim at International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who announced last month that she was opening a preliminary examination into alleged extrajudicial drug killings.
In a speech Wednesday, Duterte insulted the international court’s justices as ‘dumb’ and ‘evil,’ and said Callamard was ‘thin’ and ‘undernourished.’
Using an expletive, he warned, ‘Don’t [mess] with me, girls.’
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano blasted Zeid’s remarks as ‘irresponsible and disrespectful’ and said the ‘unmeasured outburst’ demeaned the Philippine president and should not be repeated.

Rodrigo Duterte, [left], with national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, has overseen a drug war marked by thousands of killings of mostly underprivileged suspects

Members of the public in Philippines scatter pairs of slippers and shoes in protest, to symbolize victims killings in president Duterte’s so-called drug war

Cayetano is claiming that Tauli-Corpuz and the others were named in the court petition ‘because of their membership in or association with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, as ‘reported over the years’ by the Philippine police and military,’ Cayetano said.
‘If they are innocent, it is a chance to prove their innocence in court’, he added.

It the belief of Secretary Cayetano that: “The world actually needs more Dutertes,” he said, describing the Philippine president as a leader with empathy who’s ready to sacrifice his life to protect the people.
International rights groups and local critics have accused Duterte of drifting toward authoritarianism after declaring martial law in the south during a major attack by pro-Islamic State group militants last year.
He has overseen a drug war marked by thousands of killings of mostly poor suspects.
Referring specifically to Duterte’s comments about Callamard, Zeid said: ‘This is absolutely disgraceful that the president of a country could speak in this way, using the foulest of language, against a rapporteur that is highly respected.’
‘Really it makes one believe that the president of the Philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation,’ he said.
Zeid, a Jordanian prince who goes by his first name, has become increasingly outspoken after announcing plans not to seek a new term after his current one ends in August. In one notable case in October 2016, a South Korean businessman, Jee Ick-joo, 53, was strangled at Police Headquarters last year by officers who later extorted ransom money from his family under the pretense that he was alive.

Protesters seek justice for Jee Ick-joo outside the headquarters of the Philippine National Police in Manila in Jan 2017

The Philippines Department of Justice stepped up and announced that some police officers had seized the businessman Jee at his home in a Manila suburb in October under the pretense of a drug raid and had then taken him to Police Headquarters and killed him.
Human Rights groups at the time, tied the killing to President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody antidrug campaign,
The international outcry at the inertia towards implementing justice in the case, forced the head of the Philippine National Police, Ronald dela Rosa, to announce an imminent purge of bad eggs from the police force, withdrawing them from further participation in the anti-drug campaign. The Drug Enforcement Agency would instead have the authority to pursue drug cases, he said.
dela Rosa, made the announcement after President Duterte rejected calls to fire the police chief, one of his most loyal allies.